Battleground
“Haa…”
Haruyuki sighed as he gazed out the window. It was a Saturday morning and he was already on a train to Akihabara despite the fact that he wanted to be in bed sleeping. The cause for him having to move today, Kirito, was resting inside Haruyuki’s Neuro Linker.
“Don’t be like that Haruyuki. A little exercise never hurt anyone,” Kirito said to the depressed boy.
Haruyuki sighed again, eliciting one from Kirito as well.
“Sorry, exercise never hurt anyone that badly. My point is, weren’t you the one who was complaining that I wasn’t doing anything besides training and sleeping. You really shouldn’t complain now that I’m actively trying to do something else now can you?”
Haruyuki sighed again. While it was true he had been trying to get Kirito, who had decided to train at least twelve hours in the Unlimited Neutral Field every half day in real life, to do something other than train, sleep, bathe, and most interestingly, eat, he didn’t want it to happen on a Saturday that could be spent sleeping.
“Well, what’s done is done. Although, if it weren’t for your current state of being, I could have remained at home and asleep.” Haruyuki told his currently unwanted hitchhiker.
Just like Haruyuki said, he and Kirito had discovered something about Kirito’s current form. For Kirito, who had somehow managed to become an electronic being, he could only move around inside the limits of a local wireless network. Of course, that only happened whenever Haruyuki was more than 3 meters away from Kirito at any period of time. This particular detail was found the day before after one of Kirito’s training sessions. Kirito had returned from the Unlimited Neutral Field to find out that Haruyuki had left his home for school. While trying to leave the house so he could ask him if he could show him around to Akihabara the next day, Kirito found himself trapped by a barrier that kept him in the range of the Arita Family Home Wireless Network.
Of course, being tired from training and seeing nothing else to do, Kirito went off to take a bath and a nap until Haruyuki returned, when he then told the boy about the limit. This was followed by experimentation which resulted in finding out about the three meter rule, and Haruyuki being forced to give up his precious sleep time for the current excursion. Thinking about that, Haruyuki once again sighed.
“Well, look on the bright side,” Kirito told the boy as the train began to slow to a stop. “At least we’ll be tag teaming together. You get to see my new skills, I get to witness you in a fight again, and we both are on the same team. Everybody wins… or they all lose, to us anyway. I’m confident that we’ll be unstoppable together, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves alright? Just make sure to have fun.”
Haruyuki looked at the reflection of his Neuro Linker in the window.
“Just where does he get his confidence from?” the boy thought to himself as the doors to the train opened and he, along with the rest of the crowd passed through them and headed their own separate ways.
For Haruyuki, and his hitchhiker, that was out of the train station and into Akihabara. More specifically, that was the Dive Cafe where the duo could access the Akihabara Battlegrounds Network and fight to Kirito’s heart’s content.
―○●○―
Haruyuki and Kirito looked at the building where the neon sign saying «QUADTOWER» was featured.
“Ah… This brings back memories,” Haruyuki said as he looked at the glowing neon sign.
“Feel free to reminisce after the fact, Haruyuki,” Kirito warns as he stares at the building’s entrance, a determined look in his eyes. “We came for here for one thing, and one thing only.”
“I know, Kirito. Let’s do our best today.”
With that, the two entered the building and began walking towards the back.
“Whoa!” Kirito exclaimed as they walked past rows and rows of person sized machines with large screens, stick and button controls, and colorful oblong chairs in front of them. Quite simply, they were arcade machines.
“I knew you said that we had to go through an arcade to get to the battle grounds but,” Kirito looked at all the game machines surrounding them. “I didn’t know there would be so many. Not with what all the advances in technology I’ve seen since coming here.”
“Yeah, well, sometimes people like things that aren’t as high-tech as they are now,” Haruyuki chuckled as they reached the back of the arcade. “Speaking of which, I think there are more games than the last time I was here.”
“More, huh?”
At the back of the arcade was an older fashioned elevator, which the two then took to the fourth floor. When the elevator doors opened again, instead of game machines and noise, there were now many narrow booths divided by large panels and silence.
“Ah, so this is a «Dive Café»,” Kirito said as he looked around the quiet room. Meanwhile, Haruyuki went to the unmanned counter and after obtaining the receipt headed to one of the empty booths with Kirito following behind. After getting one of the single person booths, Haruyuki closed and locked the door.
“Are you ready Kirito?” Haruyuki asked as he sat down in the booth’s sole chair.
“Of course,” Kirito nodded with a smile. “I also managed to pick an inconspicuous avatar for the network. The Access Gate is Akihabara BG right?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s do this.”
Haruyuki and Kirito’s voices overlapped as they said the words needed to head to the battlegrounds.
“Direct Link!”
Shuwah!
Along with that sound, Haruyuki’s consciousness separated from his real body before both he and Kirito fell into darkness. Silently, a few Access Gates appeared below them and they reached their invisible hands towards the one tagged with the words «Akihabara BG», the Gate drawing closer as a result. Soon, the two were sucked into the circular Gate and, after experiencing a slight lag due to the Access Gate’s authentication process, the two continued to float down until a feeling of solid ground was presented beneath their feet along with a hard, metallic sound.
“So this is the Akihabara Battleground,” Kirito muttered in amazement. “It really does look like some sort of club.”
The room the two had landed in had the appearance similar to a classic, two-floored, shady club. The walls and floor were made out of rusty steel plates and wire-mesh while rough tables made up of just bare iron plates were lined up at equal intervals across the first floor. In the center of the room was a rectangular space that looked like an atrium and above was the second floor which was small enough to be surrounded by the floor below. Throughout the room were many avatars that had also Dived into this bar sitting around the gloomy tables while immersed in shadow.
Hanging from a chain in the center of this dimly lit room was a large four-sided monitor. Due to the dimly lit settings, the characters projected on the virtual screen could be clearly seen.
Displayed at the top of the monitor was [TODAY‟S BATTLE] in Gothic font. Beneath that was [11:01] the current time. The line below had the names of the two currently fighting along with a number that represented the odds of either combatant winning. As of that moment, [Frost Horn Lv5 2.58 VS Tourmaline Shell Lv4 1.79] was the current match. Below the current match was a short list of various Burst Linker’s waiting in a queue for the next battle to occur.
“Well, we’re here,” Haruyuki, in a green lizard Avatar, said as he turned towards Kirito, who was disguised as an anthropomorphic orange wolf avatar dressed in a biker outfit. “Nice Avatar, Kirito.”
Kirito looked down at his appearance.
“Wow,” he exclaimed as he looked himself over. “I didn’t think that would actually work.”
After he finished checking himself out he turned back to Haruyuki.
“Let’s register for a match.”
And with those words, the two headed to the back of the room where a dwarf Avatar was sitting behind a counter made from iron plates and reading a newspaper. Kirito helped Haruyuki onto one of the stools before sitting down on one himself.
“Hello, «Matchmaker»,” Haruyuki said to the dwarf.
The dwarf looked up from what it was reading only for his eyes to widen in shock.
“Well then, here’s someone I haven’t seen in a while,” the dwarf said as he stared at Haruyuki’s lizard Avatar. “You’re not with the Leopard this time, so I take it you just want a regular match?”
As he said that he turned his gaze towards Kirito while Haruyuki replied with a short, “Yes.”
“Mind telling me who the famous silver crow of the Black Legion is partnering up this time?”
“You should already know who he is,” Haruyuki replied with a sigh. “After all, he fought our leader just the other day.”
The dwarf’s eyes widened.
“You mean the one with the mysterious name, Avatar, and unknown level?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Kirito answered. “Due to complicated reasons I’m currently stuck as a Burst Linker even though it should be impossible for me.”
“I see…” the dwarf said as he stroked his beard in thought.
“I trust you won’t say which Avatar I am?”
“I have a policy of letting the actual battlers do that themselves if they wish to.”
“I see. Thank you.”
With that, the two registered for a tag-team match before Kirito placed Haruyuki back on the floor and the two walked off to one of the tables near a shadowy corner of the room. Moments later, when the monitor screens updated, many shouts of surprise were voiced at the two names that had appeared at the top of the screen.
“Hey, that mysterious Burst Linker showed up!”
“Why is Silver Crow partnering with the mysterious Burst Linker?”
“He probably joined NN since the Black King defeated him!”
While various things along those lines were exclaimed across the room, the numbers representing the odds began to change. Minutes later, another pair of names showed up on the screen as Kirito and Haruyuki’s opponents. They were [Nickel Doll Lv 6 & Sand Duct Lv 6].
“Nickel Doll and Sand Duct?” Haruyuki muttered to himself. “Why do those two sound so familiar?”
Kirito gave Haruyuki a weird look, but before he could say anything the world went blue and the bright red string of words that announced a new challenger appeared in front of both of their faces.
―○●○―
Destruction.
No matter where you turned to look, buildings were crumbled, roads were shattered, and fires burned eternally.
The stage known as «End of Century» or «World’s End», was the place Kirito found himself in for the duration of his match.
“This stage really seems to love me, Haruyuki,” Kirito, now back in his Aincrad attire, said to the silver robot at his side, Silver Crow. “It seems that every time I made it into the Unlimited Neutral Field, this stage was always here waiting for me.”
“Maybe you were just lucky,” Silver Crow said as he stretched himself a bit.
“How lucky does one have to be to constantly get a stage depicting the end of the world?” Kirito thought to himself as the match started with signature announcement of [FIGHT!].
Instantly, Kirito and Silver Crow dashed forward towards where the enemy cursors were located. Jumping and dodging through rubble, the pair made it to a flat stretch of road before stopping.
“Y-You two…” Silver Crow momentarily froze in surprise before recomposing himself. “You two were the ones that I had fought back when I had just hit Level 2!”
“Hoh? It seems like he remembered us from last time, Duct.”
“If that’s the case, let’s make sure to return the favor, Doll.”
Standing about 20 meters away from Kirito and Silver Crow were their two opponents: Sand Duct and Nickel Doll. Sand Duct, like his name, was sandy brown in color, over two meters tall, and had various went shaped holes all over his body and arms. Nickel Doll was silver in color and had the appearance of a western doll, while only being around one meter in height in comparison to her partner. Her most distinguishing feature were her five drill-like pigtails.
“You know these two, Crow?” Kirito asked after seeing the exchange.
“Yeah, I fought these two a when I turned Level 2. Since I had accidentally wasted most of my points, I had to hire a «Bouncer» to help me win enough points to keep me in the safety zone.”
“I see. Anything I should know?”
“Nickel Doll manipulates electricity from those orbs on her palms, while Sand Duct can suck in or shoot out air and sand from all the vents in his body.”
“Hey!” Nickel Doll exclaimed. “Why is it every time we fight, someone always reveals my abilities before the battle’s even begun!”
“”Calm down, Doll,” Sand Duct placed a giant hand on his partner’s head. “Even if they know our abilities, it’s still from when you and I were Levels 4 and 3 respectively. We’ve gained several Levels since then.”
“True, but,” Nickel Doll turned to look at Kirito. “Can I ask you to handle that swordsman over there for a bit? Since he’s the most dangerous it would be better if we got rid of him first, but if Silver Crow is still around it will be pointless. Since he’s still Level 5 and made of silver, I’ll handle him with my electricity.”
“Understood.”
With that said, Nickel Doll jumped away from Sand Duct before charging at Silver Crow.
“Crow!”
“I got it, Kirito!”
Silver Crow dashed towards Nickel Doll while Kirito kept his eye on Sand Duct. Keeping his eye on the behemoth, Kirito drew his two swords and steadily walked towards Sand Duct.
“Aren’t you taking things a bit leisurely, Mr. Kirito?” Sand Duct asked as he got into a preparatory stance.
“Leisurely?” Kirito asked as he suddenly slashed his «Elucidator» to the right, the black sword briefly disappearing before resting back in place. At the same moment, a large slab of concrete crumbled to pieces while Kirito’s special gauge went up a small amount.
“I guess you can call it leisurely but,” Kirito suddenly smiled. “If you want to beat me you’ll have to be fast you know?”
Sand Duct visibly shuddered.
“If that’s the case, then I’ll attack you instead!”
Sand Duct held his arms behind him before shooting out two powerful blasts of air, the force propelling him towards Kirito at a high speed. Kirito readied his stance with a smile.
“Now that’s more like it!” In an instant, Kirito charged as well.
―○●○―
“Hy~aa!”
“Haa!”
Haruyuki, in his Silver Crow avatar, and Nickel Doll closed in on each other fast before immediately throwing a punch at each other. With the fists clashing against the other, the two immediately launched themselves into a fierce frenzy of hand-to-hand combat. With multiple punches and kicks being launched at each other and deflected, the two became locked in a fierce dance in an attempt to defeat the other while dodging through the various obstacles brought forth by the «World’s End» stage.
While jumping over a slab of concrete, Nickel Doll launched two jabs to Haruyuki’s face before suddenly performing a mid-air flip and launching a kick to Haruyuki’s face. After dodging the first two jabs, Haruyuki, blocked the kink with both of his arms. Pushing Nickel Doll and himself away from each other by using the force of the kick, Haruyuki immediately brought out his wings and flapped them behind him to give himself a temporary boost in speed and dash behind his opponent before unleashing a roundhouse kick. Nickel Doll ducked by bending over backwards before transforming it into a flip to get away from Haruyuki.
Charging at the winged Avatar again, Nickel Doll suddenly dropped to the floor and tried to sweep out Haruyuki’s feet at the last second. Predicting this, Haruyuki flapped his wings to help lift him a bit out of the kicks range before flapping them again to propel a kick towards Nickel Doll’s head. However, the female Avatar managed to roll out of the way before grabbing Haruyuki’s leg with both of her hands.
“Gotcha~a!” With a shout, Nickel Doll’s hands started to glow blue in color. “«Anode-Cathode»!”
Blue-white electricity flashed from Nickel Doll’s palms, through Haruyuki’s legs and continued throughout his entire body.
“Ahhh!”
As the electricity coursed through Haruyuki’s body like a lightning bolt, he fell with his back to the ground, smoking. Looking up at his health gauge, he was shocked to see that it had decreased by nearly thirty percent!
“H-How?” Haruyuki exclaimed in shock.
“It’s quite simple really,” Nickle Doll said as she slowly got up and walked towards the fallen Haruyuki. Casually grabbing him up by the neck, Nickel Doll lifted the surprised Haruyuki, by the throat.
“You see, every time I level up, I make it a habit to upgrade the strength of my electricity,” Nickel Doll boasted as she lifted Haruyuki into the air despite her small frame. “Since you are a «Silver» type, which conducts electricity easily, you are already really weak to the electrical attacks I conduct through my properties as a «Nickel» type. When you consider that my electricity’s power increases exponentially with each level up and that I’ve now Leveled up five times since becoming a Burst Linker…”
“Gyaaa!” More screams escaped Haruyuki’s mouth as electricity coursed through his body once again. His health gauge had now dropped to below half.
“You no longer stand a chance. When you last fought me, my electricity was only boosted sixteen times. Now, it’s been boosted to sixty-four times!” Nickel Doll exclaimed as she tightened her grip on Haruyuki’s neck. “It’s just your bad luck that you were matched against me this time, or else I’m certain you would have done a lot better than in this fight.”
Right before Nickel Doll could shock Haruyuki again, she suddenly dropped him before immediately jumping back from her previous position. At that moment, a black shape flew through where she previously was and crashed into a large pile of broken concrete.
“What the hell?” Nickel Doll looked towards the crash site and saw Kirito getting out of the rubble while stretching himself.
“Ah, ah, ah. That still hurts a lot,” Kirito said as he shook the rubble off of him. “Even if I’m a bit used to the pain now, it still hurts so much!”
He then looked back in the direction he flew from.
“However, those blasts of yours sure are amazing, Sand Duct. It’s hard to get close to you at all! Of course, you’ll have to do better if you want to beat me though.”
“Eh?” Nickel Doll turned her head confused towards the direction Kirito flew from. Lumbering towards her was Sand Duct, although his body was covered in countless moderately deep slashes.
“Duct! What happened?” Nickel Doll exclaimed in surprise.
“Change of plans Doll,” Sand Duct said as he slowly brought himself next to his partner. “We have to get rid of that monster first. Despite blasting him into the ground so many times, he was hardly injured at all, and his speed and strength allowed him to inflict a large number of attacks on me the few times he got past my «Sand Blasts»!”
“What?” Nickel Doll looked up at Kirito and Sand Duct’s health gauges. True enough, while Kirito’s had only gone down by just under a quarter, Sand Duct was already a little below half!
“This is ridiculous!” Nickel muttered as she glared at the black-haired youth.
“You still good, Crow?” Kirito asked Haruyuki as he slowly managed to get up and jump over to his side with the aid of his wings.
“Yeah, never better,” Haruyuki joked bitterly.
“Great!” Kirito said as he held both swords down at his side. “I think it’s time that I showed you some of my new skills.”
“Eh?”
Stepping forward, Kirito held both of his swords out horizontally before swinging them around in a complicated matter.
“After all, now that my special gauge is maxed out,” Kirito swung his two swords behind him. “I can finally show it to you!”
To the surprise of everyone but him, Kirito swung his swords back out before impaling himself with his two blades.
“The power of my «Fairy Dance»!”
Cipher J's Blog 